“If we get this right, we might be a $1 billion company by 2000,” Bezos told him. Risher personally informed Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates of his defection to the bookseller across the lake. Gates, who underestimated the Internet’s impact for too long, was stunned. “I think he was honestly flabbergasted,” Risher says. “To some extent he was right. It didn’t make any sense.”
